And you thought it was safe to go back to county lock-up?

Recently a police officer savagely beat a 15 year old girl in a holding cell. The offense?  Kicking her shoe off in his direction. Don’t take my word for it. Here are a couple of videos which show the incident. The squeamish might refrain…

This video (through the Seattle PI) shows the holding cell portion of the incident. Well, the PI pulled their video down so I found another on YouTube (their article and its comment thread are still available and a good read):

(You will note that by the time he pummels the back of her head with his fist, her legs have stopped twitching and she is absolutely passive.)

This one (through YouTubers—let me know if it breaks and I’ll embed another) shows a bit from the hallway to add context:

The accompanying PI article really sums things up nicely. If you thought Rodney King was disproportionate, what can you possibly think of this? My gut reaction is that this officer should be incarcerated and banned from police work. And I really don’t care how verbally abusive she may have been.

The officer claims to have been defending himself, claims to have received sincere injuries from her shoe. One reporter/blogger calls him a liar and I have to agree:

I am willing to stand there while someone throws a rubber-souled, (faux) leather-uppered shoe at my shins to test the voracity of the officer’s claim.  Please try this at home, kids.

I have worked many years serving customers, and they are at times quite repugnant in their comments. But this is the nature of the work. When you arrest someone, criminal or not, you can certainly expect they may have a few ill words to dispense. Regardless, physical violence is not an acceptable response to words—however harsh.

That’s my two-cents worth. Your thoughts on the matter are welcome below.

Be careful; it’s a jungle out there.